Core web vitals were possibly the biggest part of the conversation this year in not just the SEO community but the overall digital marketing landscape. They are already at the top of the checklist of the best SEO agencies in Kolkata and around the world. And why not! Google’s Page Experience algorithm update in 2020 can fundamentally change how brands make their websites and what they prioritize when engaging their organic audience.
But what are core web vitals? How to measure them? There are so many such questions that often end with complex answers. Let us explain this in a simpler way.
The Basics
Websites are a vital part of online marketing, and it is essential that your website performs well. Google measures the performance of your site by using the Web Vitals metrics. These include Page Load Time, Page Response Time and Page Visual Stability. The Page Load Time measures how long it takes for your webpage to load. It is measured as a percentage of how quickly the page displays on a mobile device. The Page Response Time is the measure of how long it takes for a user to respond to a command on the page. The Page Visual Stability measures how well the page holds consistent visual characteristics over time.
These three metrics are used to determine whether or not your site provides a good experience for mobile users, and also if your site is providing that experience consistently across multiple devices.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals is Google’s term for a set of performance metrics that they measure in order to determine how well a site performs on mobile devices. They are a combination of page load time, page responsiveness and page visual stability.
Page speed, user interaction, and engagement metrics are all important factors in how Google evaluates your site.
Core Web Vitals takes these three factors and groups them together to create a page experience score. By grouping these metrics together, Google is able to provide users with a holistic view of the page’s user experience.
3 Core Web Vital Metrics
Core web vitals has three metrics that Google uses to analyze a page's experience: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
What is LCP?
Largest Contentful Paint is a performance metric, which measures how long it takes for pages to become visually usable. It is often abbreviated as LCP and can be checked using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a crucial performance indicator, as it represents the time from a user clicking on a link, to seeing the majority of the page content on their screen.
A good LCP underlines your users can see and interact with your page as quickly as possible. If you have lots of images on your site, for example, you might be hesitant to use a thumbnail gallery or lazy loading technique. You might think that it’s better to have everything immediately available for users to see.
Thing is, if every user has to wait for all of those images to load, then you’re increasing their LCP and cutting into their time-on-page. They’ll probably just leave.
Tightening up your LCP can help you increase conversions and engagement because you keep users on-page longer.
The easiest way to shorten your LCP is by optimizing images. Consult any of the top SEO companies in Sydney for help to improve your LCP score.
What is FID?
First Input Delay (FID) is a metric that measures the responsiveness of an application. FID measures the time between a user’s initial click or touch on the page and their first input event, such as keypress or mouse movement. We will use this metric to evaluate how quickly we can deliver the first interaction with our page after a page load.
The FID metric evaluates the user’s first impression of the response time of your site. First impressions are very important in forming our overall impression of the quality and reliability of that website. If someone opens your site and experiences a lag while they wait for content to load, they may become frustrated and leave without ever seeing what you were offering them. Whereas LCP focuses on all input events, FID is a metric that measures only time to first paint.
One of the easiest ways to improve your FID is to reduce the number of input events required by your page. Input events are generated every time a user clicks a link or submits a form; on mobile devices, you will also notice additional input events when swiping between pages, scrolling, or changing orientation. For more information on how to improve your FID score, get in touch with one of the best SEO agencies in Kolkata.
What is CLS?
Layout Shift (CLS) is a measure of how stable the content layout of a page is. In general, visual stability is an important principle for a good user experience. Users like to see things that they expect to see; they are frustrated by things that change without warning.
Visual stability is important because it helps users to find their way around the page and to understand where they are. It reduces cognitive load by providing a consistent mental model for interacting with the page, and it allows users to make plans about what action will happen next in the interaction with the page.
Tables are the most unstable elements because they usually change size when resized or scrolled. So, it’s a good idea to avoid them.
Layout stability can be measured by calculating the difference between two consecutive frames and dividing it by the total number of elements displayed in both frames. This value can be reported as a percentage, or it can be used to calculate a score (for example, 0.1).
This metric can be used to measure whether a page is rendering consistently across different browsers, devices, or screen resolutions. It also provides some indication about how much a page layout changes when new elements are added to the DOM or current ones are removed.
In general, layout shifts are bad. They break the user’s visual perception and make them feel uncomfortable. It is important to maintain high cumulative layout stability (CLS).
Need help to boost your core web vitals?
Having good core web vital metrics is extremely important now. If your website doesn’t trade well on these metrics, it’s going to struggle to attract consistent organic traffic.
Get connected to any one of the leading SEO companies in Sydney and get help from experts.
